{"entry":{"title":"Why Our Prison System Is Insane, in Charts","date":"Fri, 16 Aug 2013 04:00:00 +0000","author":"Paul Waldman, Prospect","description":"
When Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that he would be issuing instructions to federal prosecutors that could result in fewer mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenders, it wasn't the risky policy change it would have been only a few years ago. With crime on a two-decade-long downward arc, politicians and policymakers don't have to worry as much as they used to about being tagged as \"soft on crime.\"<\/a> In fact, there's so much toughness already built into our criminal-justice system that unless we start lopping off thieves' hands, it couldn't get much tougher. Though the change Holder announced would affect only those convicted of federal crimes, it has brought renewed attention to our enormous prison population.<\/p>","original_link":"http:\/\/prospect.org\/article\/six-charts-explain-why-our-prison-system-so-insane"}}